


When You Lose Something You Cannot Replace

by sleepismyfriend



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-24 17:05:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10746081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepismyfriend/pseuds/sleepismyfriend
Summary: After the mess with Missy and the Cybermen, Kate tries to save Alistair in a rush of grief and emotion.





	When You Lose Something You Cannot Replace

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Spydurwebb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spydurwebb/gifts), [Dallas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dallas/gifts).



> Takes place towards the end of episode 8x12 Death in Heaven. The Brigadier being noted as Earth's champion is a detail from the classic Seventh Doctor serial, Battlefield.

As she enters the lab, Liz smiles, surveying her surroundings. The lab's neater than she expected, though it's been quite a few years since Kate's holed herself up in one. She remembers beakers lying about, while others cooked patiently atop Bunsen burners, a much younger Kate scribbling formulas across a faded spiral notebook.

She finds Kate hunched over a laptop, her hair askew, as a large translucent cage sits in the corner. It's open, as a Cyberman sits on a stool near Kate and the edge of the lab table. The sight of a Cyberman doesn't frighten Liz, though now the berets standing outside of the lab make sense. 

"I haven't seen you this focused in a long time," Liz says, touching Kate's back with the gentlest of pressures, as Kate pushes her glasses up her nose. When their gazes meet, Liz can see the raw circles that surround her eyes. "Not since the Weathertop experiment." 

"I needed to clear my head," Kate says, straightening.

"I saw the casualty list on my way in."

"Yes, well—" Kate moves past her, checking several of the instruments around her before reaching for her tablet. "Our people knew the risks." 

"Knowing the risks doesn't necessarily mean we accept them. Especially when they're people that we've come to rely on." Liz watches Kate look from the tablet to the Cyberman several times before moving back towards the laptop. She waits several moments as keyboard clicks fill the room. "Kate—"

"I really have a lot of work to do," Kate says, as Liz looks towards the screen to see the multiple computations she's running.

"I heard a rumour that you were thrown from Boat One earlier," Liz says.

“Yes, right before it exploded." Kate tries not to remember the gasping feeling of too much weightless air before the Cyberman caught her. She remembers heaving long after her feet touched the ground.

"And medical cleared you?"

"My name is on their paychecks," Kate says, her eyes not lifting from the screen. "They'll do as I command, not otherwise."

"I've heard that before."

"I'm sure you have." Kate moves once again towards the Cyberman, taking extra care to scan the robot from head to toe with the tablet. If Liz wasn't so preoccupied with Kate, she might almost be fascinated.

The Cyberman flickers, and Liz watches as the robot shifts to cross its' arms.

"Delete," the Cyberman says, in gravelly somewhat familiar tones. "Delete."

"No—You're trapped in there, and I think I know how to get you out," Kate says, lowering the tablet.

"No upgrade," it says. Liz moves towards them, as Kate sets the tablet to the side to rub her forehead. Liz finds her breath catching at its' next words. "Tig-er, no upgrade."

When Kate looks at her, Liz sees the sudden glassiness of her eyes.

"She brought him back," Kate says, pausing.

"Who brought who back?"

"Missy—The Master. She reanimated the dead into Cyberbodies. This one is my father."

Liz reaches for the tablet. Sure enough, Alistair's medical information fills the screen, and her heart drops.

"I've severed his connection with the other Cyberminds still lingering around the area. Under Danny Pink's control, most of them are starting to shut down or self-destruct. I think I can work around the mechanical bits, but there will be no telling what's inside once I do. His outer casing is quite the piece of technology," Kate continues, as she moves back towards the computer.

Liz sets the tablet down, and moves towards the Cyberman. The Cyberman bows its head, and Liz hesitates, before lifting her hands to each side of the Cyberman's helmet.

"Liz-zie—" The Cyberman's voice lowers under the pressure of syllables, and Liz feels her own tears forming.

The Cyberman leans forward on the stool enough to rest its head against Liz's chest. Kate slowly pulls back from the computer to watch, as the Cyberman's arms rest on Liz's waist, and Liz lifts her arms to encompass it.

"Hello soldier," she says, her lips brushing the side of the steel helmet. 

Kate clears her throat, and crosses her arms, as Liz drops her arms to look at her. The woman she's considered a protége is staring downward, as the numbers in Kate's head add up. 

Kate's softened gaze returns to Liz, as Liz's hand moves to the Cyberman's cheek. 

"I didn't know," Kate says.

"It was ours to know,” Liz says.

"I can respect that."

"It appears that you should reanalyze what you are respectful for." A new deep voice enters the lab, and Liz turns.

"Curator, I didn't realize you were here--" Kate says.

"Curator?" Liz asks, as the white-haired man approaches, his use of a cane slowing his movements.

"I don't barricade myself in the Tower, Dr Stewart. Occasionally, I talk a walk, see the sights, catch up with old friends," he replies, stepping close to the Cyberman and Liz. "Perhaps I could avail my services in the name of old friends."

The Curator doesn't pause, hooking his cane on his arm, as he reaches for the tablet. After several swipes, he sighs, and sets the tablet and the cane to the side.

"It appears Earth's champion returned at not a moment's notice. Impeccable timing, Brigadier," the Curator says. 

"Doc-tor--" the Cyberman says.

"I'm hardly a Doctor," the Curator taps his nose. "Though if I were--a doctor, as it were, I'd tell you to take two and call me in the morning. You look dreadful."

The Cyberman let out what could only be described as a computerized snort, as the Curator's head bowed. The Curator smirked, allowing the smirk to fade before he looked towards Kate.

“You have quite a viable set of numbers, congratulations."

"Thank you."

"However, you have seemingly forgot one important variable," the Curator says, moving closer to Kate.

"What's that?" 

"Your father."

"I don't understand," Kate replies.

"Should you tell her, Elizabeth, or should I?" the Curator looks to Liz, his eyebrows lifting, as the use of her name forces Liz to straighten. His head turns back to Kate, his eyes narrowing. "This isn't what he would want."

"He's hardly in a position to know what he wants," Kate says. 

"Tig-er," the Cyberman says. "Delete."

"You see, there? He's telling you what he wants," the Curator says. "You're not listening."

"And, what is the alternative?" Kate's voice sharpens. "This situation isn't something we've exactly prepared for."

"Perhaps not, but once you crack that case, what kind of man will you find in there?" The Curator motions. "Because I guarantee you, you will not find the Brigadier that you and I loved."

"I have to try," she says, her voice fading.

"Well then, by all means," the Curator says, his eyes hardening, as his deep voice softens. "But, it will be fool hardy, and it won't save him."

"Curator--" 

"He's right," Liz says, moving forward. She exchanges glances with the Curator. "Your father never would have wanted you to remember him like this." She moved forward again, touching Kate's shoulders. "Whatever the Master did, you can't undo."

"She killed my assistant," Kate says, on the verge of tears.

"I know," Liz says.

"Petronella was uh, she was brilliant," Kate says, wiping at her face. "And I took that for granted. I took her life and her safety for granted."

Despite knowing Kate's loyalty to those at UNIT under her, Liz nods. 

"Doc-tor," the Cyberman says, breaking the silence, and the Curator turns.

"I thought I told you, I'm not a Doctor," the Curator says. "I'm a Curator, I curate and know things."

"Delete."

"Yes, old friend, we're getting there. Just a few more moments, alright? Then, you can rest," the Curator says, resting one hand on the Cyberman's shoulder and the other on his cane. 

Liz turns, slipping one arm through Kate's. With her free hand, she wipes one of Kate's stray tears away. They take a few steps forward towards the Cyberman and the Curator. 

"You go on ahead," the Curator says. "I'll be along."

\--

With the grey skies around them, Kate, Liz, and the Cyberman approach Alistair's grave. Like many around them, the dirt surrounding his headstone is scattered, and there's a slight crack in the headstone's base.

"This is where I landed after he caught me," Kate says, her eyes squinting. 

"You were lucky," Liz says, standing to Kate's left, as the Cyberman stands to Kate's right. 

"Damn right, she is." A new voice, deeper and more Scottish in tone, appears to Liz's left. Liz glances to see a thin curly-haired man in a dark overcoat standing next to her. She doesn't have to squint to see a brunette half-leaning against a blue police box off in the distance. "Not many people can be thrown from a plane like that and survive."

As Kate looks towards the man, her weariness regarding Boat One remains evident.

"Doc-tor--" the Cyberman speaks, and the man's attention shifts. 

"Alright, Alistair, I'm going," the Doctor says. He moves away from Liz, putting some distance between himself, Liz, and Kate. Liz waits a moment before turning and following the Doctor.

Once they've taken several steps away, they turn to focus on Kate and the Cyberman. With her hands in her pockets and her head slightly tilted, Kate speaks softly.

"How did you know?" Liz asks.

"It was Earth's darkest hour," the Doctor says, with a shrug. "Where else would its' champion be?" 

"Earth's champion, pft, he never would have wanted this to be our last memory of him," Liz says, exhaling. 

"Why? Alistair saving Kate is exactly the type of chivalrous thing I would want to remember him for. It doesn't matter that he is covered in a cybernetically augmented fancy robot suit. He's reminded me yet again what an idiot I am. That's classic Alistair."

"Perhaps," Liz says, looking at him with slight tears in her eyes. "But, you're acting as though you'll see him again. Things end, Doctor. I would have thought you of all people would have learned that by now."

Kate breaks away from the Cyberman, making her way towards them. 

"Do you want to say goodbye?" She looks at Liz, and Liz shakes her head.

"No," Liz says. "I want to remember your father properly. We said our goodbyes a long time ago, and I'm happy with that."

The Doctor straightens, holding a perfect salute, as Kate turns to face the Cyberman. The Cyberman doesn't waste time, shooting high enough up into the sky for them to almost lose sight of him before exploding.

Liz and Kate turn, and walk away, leaving the Doctor staring upward long after they've gone.


End file.
